The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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Why Botswana did not accept Zimbabwe’s election results

Botswana, which sent a 50-member delegation to observe the Zimbabwe presidential elections run-off of 2008, said it did not recognise the results of the elections because they were marred by violence which did not allow for free and fair elections.

The country’s observer mission comprised of representatives of the three political parties represented in the National Assembly, civic bodies, civil servants and academics.

It was part of the 413 Southern African Development Community observer mission from 12 out of the 14 SADC countries.

The Botswana team said it had observed a high level of intimidation and politically motivated violence that escalated with the approach to the run-off elections leading to injuries to persons, internal and external displacements of people, abductions, loss of property, loss of lives, theft and looting.

“In short, the mayhem observed by the team had the effect of depriving the people of Zimbabwe of the opportunity to fully participate in the electoral process.”

It also said that some observers were subjected to harassment. On different occasions, some members of the team were chased away from rallies addressed by ZANU-PF and prevented from carrying out their observer duties.

In some instances, observers were threatened with violence and instructed to leave such rallies. The team was in particular singled out for harassment on account of perceptions that Botswana was anti-ZANU-PF.

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.